WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. THIS BLOG HAS BEEN CALLED "THE DEFINITIVE BLOG ON MIAMI CRIMINAL LAW" BY THE NY TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE POPE, AND DONALD TRUMP WHO ALSO ONCE SAID IT WAS "REALLY GREAT". POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM

Friday, July 06, 2007

MORE FROM THE LAND O'PLENTY

More news from North of the Border, where anything, and everything is possible.A man was arrested for bringing a loaded firearm into the Broward Courthouse.

And being Broward these days, it just so happens the person was Attorney Steven Finta who was arriving for his third day of jury selection for a client he was representing for first degree murder. Talk about a vicious cross examination!

Judge Zack has been removed from considering any cases involving the Broward State Attorneys office. The State Attorneys office recently asked the Governor to appoint a prosecutor to investigate whether Judge Zack committed a crime by taking a loan from an attorney who appeared before him.

STOP! IN THE NAME OF THE LAW:

And last but not least, don't make an illegal left turn in Hollywood. That's what Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne learned when he was stopped, and ticketed - while in a marked BSO unit, for making an illegal left turn.There you have it, from the Circuit that strives to entertain us all.

The rest of links are on the Broward Blog, where we learned of these stories.

Those of you who constantly bash officers for how the deal with the mentally ill and downplay the risks they face should read this article from AOL News:

Trooper Killed by Man He Stopped to HelpAPPosted: 2007-07-06 12:02:54Filed Under: Crime NewsWABASH, Ind. (July 6) - An Indiana state trooper who stopped to help a motorist was shot and killed by the man, who then reloaded the shotgun and killed himself, state police said.

Indiana State Police / AP Master Trooper David Rich, 41, stopped along a highway in Wabash, Ind., Thursday to help a motorist he thought was stranded. The motorist, Joseph M. Vultaggio Jr., shot and killed Rich, then reloaded the gun and turned it on himself, officials said.

Master Trooper David Rich was shot in the chest by Joseph M. Vultaggio Jr., 21, of Gaylord, Mich., on U.S. 24 in northern Indiana, state police Sgt. Tony Slocum said.

Slocum said Vultaggio was driving a sport-utility vehicle that his father had reported stolen on Wednesday.

Rich, 41, was an 18-year veteran of the state police. He was married with a 7-year-old daughter and twin 3-year-old sons, Slocum said.

DEAR MR. RUMPOLE: I have a request for you as a frequent reader and sometimes anonymous contributor to your blog. In the last few days they have been numerous handgun deaths- an ex-con killed 3 in New Hampshire, a highway patrolman was killed, 5 were shot in a Las Vegas Casino. I propose that you dedicate one of your blogs to a request from all the lawyers reading as to how we can effectuate gun control of handguns to cut down our murder rate which is among the world's leaders-our competition in this area are poor countries such as Brazil. How about it? One blog divorcing itself from gossip, summer atire, one pardon and a discussion about the 2nd Amendment. Surely our forefathers did not envision 15000 murders a year- and by children no less. The 2nd was originally intended to combat a totalitarian British Empire enforcing its will by trial without jury, taxation without representation, oppressive economic policies etc. Readers: DWHAT CAN WE AS LAWYERS AND JUDGES O TO CUT DOWN ON GUN VIOLENCE IN THE U.S. WHICH IS CURRENTLY FOSTERED BY THE 2ND AMENDMENT?

"Juan Says: April 21st, 2007 at 9:53 am . I could have cared less as I would never use my work computer for anything that was not work related unlike most stupid people who would have. Thus, your are left with a politically motivated story which never went anywhere.

The real story here is how the system is so corrupt that they served a warrant on a entity that cannot accept it.

Sad how you would reprint something like this from a media source that is as bad as the Herald."

3:16- what an awful tragedy. I think our position that many indeed most officers do a dangerous and thankless job is clear. We have seen officers buying food with their own money for the homeless...and sometimes, we have seen officers abuse the homeless. But that does not diminish the tragic death of Trooper Rich.

The movie by Michael Moore "SICKO" is excellent and highlights how screwed up our health care system is. Several years ago he did the movie about Columbine to highlight gun violence. The response by CONGRESS was to do NOTHING. Thousands more dead since the movie. Can someone tell me what is wrong with gun buyback programs and incentives at taxpayer expense- in the long run I am sure it would be cheaper than emergency room care of gunshot victims- funerals- prison incarceration-meals and healthcare; judges and lawyers. Between this unjust war in Iraq, the way we treat the homeless, gun violence and the fact that 1/6th of our population has no health insurance means that we are are IN A DOWNWARD SLIPPERY slope on our way to be a has been superpower like England, France, etc. But hey, how about that Shaq man.

Problem with Carlos Martinez is that he is too much of a chicken to run against Bennett. He is trying to convince Bennett to retire and allow him to run in his place, but Bennett has always said that he wants to die as the Public Defender. The reality is that Bennett is nothing more than a figure head at this point. He has no clue about the every day goings on at the office and allows Weed, Stein and Carlos to run the place in his absence.

In fact rumor has it that Bennett spends most of his time these days in Colorado. I am still allowed into the PD's office (at least for now) and I still take depos over there at least once a week. Each time I go over to the PD's I look for Bennett's car (the silver BMW parked on the east end of the building) and it is never ever there.

Everyone over there knows that it is time for Bennett to resign, butthey are all his lap dogs so they will not challenge him openly. This is especially the case for Carlos, who was plucked by Bennettout of the pits and annointed asan executive administrator over many other longer serving PD's.

Carlos if you are the man for the job, then stand up to Bennett andrun against him in the primary. Weall need a PD who is at least present in the jurisdiction on a daily basis, who is willing to go into court, who is willing to talk to the media about the daily injustices that PD clients face and who has some fight left in him.

Since the 'request' for topics for this blog seem to be flowing, how about this one?

It's interesting to hear about judges north of the border and all that is going on there, but it seems like there has been no coverage lately about what our Miami judges have been doing. Lets face it, things happen daily at REG, between court incidents and various trials. Who won, who lost, what happened, etc. Have you lost interest in covering your home turf? How about some updates and discourse on local news?

Dunham's comment at 9 AM is another pathetic example of a loser who cannot let the results of a previous election go. Chris, aren't you in private practice? Why the hell do you care who the PD is? Wait...you must be just very civic minded. Weren't you the one out there campaigning vigorously for Gabe? Isn't he the one that is suspended because the Bar thinks he engaged in fraud with $9 million of other people's money. That's the person you thought should be in charge of the taxpayer's money. You've got great credibility Chris. You're entitled to your opinions...just no one cares about them.

10:09 1) email me and I will make you a guest blogger and you can do it.

2) Come on. Judges getting arrested for Marijuana. Ross resigning and putting his paw in his mouth every time he speaks to the media. Judges making lawyers buy their wives presents. Judges "borrowing" money and not returning it. Lawyers sccoping cash and valuable prizes into the the pockets of Judges. Broward is a gold mine these days. A gold mine. Dade for once- is calm and quiet. I have every confidence that one of our dear robe readers will soon screw up in a public manner befitting the proud traditions of the REGJB. But until then, I just cannot ignore the hi-jinks north of the Border.

The Q's Sunday lecture series at UM LAw school this Sunday is canceled. Topics- "Jury selection in a breath case" and "Williams Rule and Davenport-you can show he beat your client"- have been re-set and the new time will be announced.

HOW POORLY IS THE U.S. WAR IN IRAQ GOING? The military is asking border agents to volunteer to go to Iraq to help with border security over there. Our own porous borders are now second fiddle to Iraqs which by the way are mountainous. I guess they didn't anticipate hundreds of miles of mountainous terrain on someone else's Home Turf would be almost impossible to police so they have a never ending supply of materials for car bombs- 100 dead today in another suicide bombing.When are they going to admit this war is a tragic mistake and start pulling out. Why not? Because of PRIDE, because Bush doesn't want bad things written about him in the history books. The longer we are over there in an unjust war the more enemies we make who seek retaliation against us in the future. It is like a boxing match where the referee has to step in and stop the fight. The only referee capable of this in the U.S. is the CONGRESS and impeachment. Total dead now approcaching 4000- 54000 more and you get a monument on the Mall.

Albeit a regular at REG building, I often travel the bumper to bumper ride into the land known only as "North of the Border". Since my practice takes my travels there freuently, I appluad and thank good ol Rump for keeping tabs on all the news going on there.

We don't want gun control. We don't need it. We don't care for it. So, please stop pushing it. Don't forget that the rate of violent crime in city is directly proportional to the strictness of its gun control laws. Gun control is people control.

CRAWFORD, Texas - Six weeks after announcing her departure from the peace movement, Cindy Sheehan said Sunday that she plans to run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unless she introduces articles of impeachment against President Bush in the next two weeks

WHEN BRUMMER IS NO LONGER PD, AND HE SHOULD NOT SEEK REELECTION BECAUSE OF HIS AGE, YOU ALL WILL SEE HOW TOUGH A JOB IT IS. I'M SURE IN ANY GIVEN MONTH HE HAS TO DEAL WITH CORRUPT JUDGES, INCOMPETENT STAFF AND TURNOVER OF SAME, BUDGET SQUABBLES, PUBLIC HATRED OF THE SERIOUS FELONY CASE CLIENTELE AND WHAT THEY HAVE DONE, IE. MURDER CHILDREN ETC. AND ALL THE CRAP WITH THE ASAS, SAO AND COPS. AND IF YOU DO THE JOB TOO WELL YOU GET CRITICIZED IN THE NEWSPAPERS AND YOU PISS OFF THE BIGGEST BUNCH OF CROOKS IN DADE, THE COPS. AND THEN YOU AND YOUR FAMILY AND STAFF GET FOLLOWED AND ARRESTED. EVER HEAR OF A COP GETTING A DUI? THE REASON WHY THEY DON'T HAVE TERM LIMITS FOR PDS AND SAO IS BECAUSE SO FEW COULD COMPETENTLY DO THE JOB AND INCOMPETENCE LEADS TO FIASCOS LIKE THE 'DUKE' NIFONG CASE. THE JOB REQUIRES A POLITICIAN MORESO THAN A TRIAL LAWYER. MY VOTE: BLACK OR HISPANIC- JUDGE JULIO JIMENEZ WOULD BE GOOD.